“‘Stay’ is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.”
—Louisa May Alcott
Carly’s mother sent this quote to us one evening. After a few months, all of our family members knew we took a few minutes at the start of our Sisterhood meetings to discuss a quote, and they were all looking for good ones.
Especially in those first meetings, we found that the words of strangers helped us talk to each other about how we were feeling in our lives. One of the things that brought us together, even early on, was the promise of friendship. For weeks after we read this quote together, we would ask each other to stay and smile when we said it. We did a lot of silly things back then to take our minds off the doctors and the chemo and the fear, but “Please stay” was one of our favorites.
It’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m sitting in the Sisterhood room at the Pews waiting for Quinn and Marilee to get back from her doctor’s appointment. Carly is working the counter out front and Becca is taking some test in one of her law classes. I’m over my cold and glad to be back with people.
I stayed home for four, almost five, days, and the world went on just fine without me. I’ve come to believe that maybe God planned it that way. Rick has taken over a lot of the wedding details, and he seems to be doing just as good as I could have with everything. Which would be a little depressing if I hadn’t already made my peace with God about it.
I was supposed to be proving I am a grown-up by taking charge of this wedding fantasy, but as it turns out I learned more about being a grown-up by letting God and Rick handle things than I would have by insisting on doing everything myself.
Of course, the details are not all in place yet. We don’t even have a location for the ceremony.
I look at my watch. Rick is supposed to be meeting me here in a few minutes to give me The Dress. Marilee still doesn’t know anything about it. I think we’ll tell her at the Sisterhood meeting tomorrow night.
Here Rick is now.
I can see him through the windows of the French doors as he fumbles to open the doors while holding on to a big box. That looks promising. I stand up and walk over to let him in.
“Have you heard anything?” Rick says the minute he gets inside. “I’ve been praying for Quinn and Marilee all morning.”
“Me, too. But I haven’t heard. In fact, we probably won’t hear for sure until Friday. The lab needs to do their thing and—”
Rick sets the box on the table and looks at me closely. “So how are you doing?”
“I’m good. I ate all those oranges and the apricot juice you left. Then I took some zinc. The combination knocked the cold out of me.”
I look over at the box. “That’s from the bridal shop?”
“Yeah. I can’t believe we were such a hit at that place,” Rick says. “Some of the guys even started to make suggestions to the women about what kind of a dress they should be wearing for their big day.”
“Really?” Now, that could be good or bad. I decide I’d better open the box to be sure it contains what it’s supposed to.
“They sure don’t skimp on their packaging,” I say as I pull a thin gold ribbon off the slick white box. I barely lift the lid when I see white tissue paper peeking out. When I take the lid higher, I see a cream-colored envelope sitting in the middle of the inside of the box.
I pick up the note and read it.
“I never sold so many gowns in three hours,” the woman had written. “You’re welcome to keep the dress. Thank you, and I hope you come in for your own wedding dress some day soon. I’ll give you a great deal. The guys were fantastic. Allison Bennett, owner of Fine Bridal Wear.”
“Wow,” I say as I look up from the note. “I guess you and the guys really did do good.”
“I tried to tell you,” Rick says with a big smile.
I lift the dress up a little. Small ivory pearls nestle against the soft satin sheen of the gown’s back. A lacy veil is tucked under the dress that matches the ivory color perfectly. A small edging of delicate lace outlines the sleeves. The gown is stunning.
“You have no idea what this will mean to Marilee.”
“Oh,” Rick says with a soft smile, “I think I do. My mom used to talk about how much she missed because she didn’t have a wedding dress.”
Just then Carly comes into the room and gives a little squeal. “Is this it?”
I lift the dress up even more so Carly can see it.
“Oh, it’s absolutely beautiful,” she says as she runs her hand over the pearl beading on the back. “This is just the kind of dress Marilee always talked about. Romantic and classic—like Audrey Hepburn in those old movies.”
Carly looks at Rick. “Marilee’s going to love it. I can’t believe you and Lizabett got the guys to do what you did. Which reminds me—Uncle Lou told me to tell you all of the guys are invited to drink coffee free here for the month.”
“Hey, thanks. He might be sorry he ever said that, though. We can drink a lot of coffee.”
“Yeah, well, Uncle Lou will do anything for Marilee,” Carly says.
We’re all quiet for a minute. We’d all do anything for her, too.
“I keep thinking they’ll call,” Carly finally says. “I can’t stand this waiting.”
“Maybe we could pray for a bit,” I say. I never thought I would be the one suggesting we turn to God, but I am trying to learn to trust Him, and prayer is a big part of that.
We sit at the table, holding hands for comfort, and pray for Marilee’s health and happiness. I try to picture God holding Marilee in His hands.
After we pray, I go find Uncle Lou. There was a plastic bag at the bottom of the box. I slip that over the dress and ask him to hide it in the storage area. He’s delighted to do it.
Of course, I have to take Becca to the storage room when she comes in a little later. Talking about the dress gives everyone something to think about instead of Marilee’s biopsy.
Uncle Lou brings us a pot of tea in the Sisterhood room, but he doesn’t sit with us. It’s the middle of the afternoon and he has a few customers out front. Besides, I know he likes to be busy.
It’s fifteen or so minutes before we hear Marilee and Quinn talking as they come in the main door of the diner. Becca is closest to the French doors and she opens them so Marilee and Quinn can come inside the Sisterhood room with the rest of us.
They both look exhausted.
“We don’t know anything yet,” Marilee says before we even ask. “The doctor said we shouldn’t worry, though. Usually, these kinds of lumps aren’t cancerous—mostly they’re fatty tissue or cysts.”
Marilee has faint circles around her eyes, and her skin looks pale. I can’t tell if she believes what the doctor told her or not.
Carly and I both stand up and walk toward Marilee. Becca is already close to her. We start to make one of our circle hugs, but Marilee stops before the four of us come together. She opens her arms to let Quinn into the hug, which leaves Rick standing there looking like an extra part to something, so I open my arms and welcome him into the group hug as well. It takes a minute, but we are finally together. I like the way it feels. We pull each other closer until we are in a huddle, with our heads bowed until they are almost touching in the middle of the circle.
Quinn is the one who starts to pray.
“Lord, give us strength,” he says. “Remind us of Your love for each of us, and especially for Marilee.”
Quinn pauses, and Carly takes up the prayer, “We ask Your good and perfect will in this as in all things.”
I don’t know the words to pray aloud, but I feel a surge in my heart. The book on prayer I read talked about the power of people praying together, but I never really experienced it until now. I wonder why I ever thought my Lizzie stone could do anything. That rock is dead, and this feels so alive.
“We remind You that You said when two or more are gathered in Your name, You would be there,” Becca adds, and I smile. It’s so like her to remind God of His promises. She’s a lawyer in all things.
There’s something comforting about seeing the way Becca is herself with God. It makes me feel better about the fact that I’m not the perfect Christian, either. Maybe God understands and accepts me more than I think He does.
Marilee’s face is shining with tears by the time we say our final amens and break apart our hug.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Marilee says, so we each hug her again.
After we step back from her, Marilee excuses herself to go find Uncle Lou and let him know what the doctor said.
When the French doors close, I turn to Quinn. “She’s telling us everything, isn’t she? The doctor didn’t add anything or—”
Quinn shakes his head. “I was with her when she talked to the doctor, and he said the odds are that it isn’t cancerous. He’s putting a rush on the lab work, though, because he knows we won’t sleep until we know.”
I have seen Quinn worried before, and he seems stronger this time.
“You really believe she’ll be okay, don’t you?” I ask him quietly.
He nods. “I know God is in control.”
I hope that someday I will have a faith that is as strong as Quinn’s. I look over at Rick, and I see him watching Quinn as well. We both have a lot to learn about this new life we’ve begun.
We all sit around the Sisterhood room for a few minutes until Marilee comes back. She doesn’t look nearly as tired as she did when she left the room and I wonder why until she says, “Lizabett, you have company.”
Marilee nods her head toward the main part of the diner. “It’s that fireman, Jake Nelson. He’s asking for you.”
“Oh.” He’s the last thing on my mind.
I see Quinn and Rick look at each other, though, and I realize I have no choice but to go talk to Jake if I want it to be clear that I can make my own decisions about the men I want to date. Right now, the whole thing doesn’t seem so important, but it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes and Marilee is looking at me like she’s expecting me to go out front. I remember how hard we used to try to maintain some semblance of a normal life in the midst of our cancer, so I know Marilee wants me to talk to Jake and not hold back because I’m worried about her.
I leave the Sisterhood room and see Jake Nelson standing beside the counter in the main dining area and looking nervous.
“Hi,” I say as I walk over to him.
“Thanks for coming out,” Jake says with a nod. “I didn’t know your friend just got back from the doctor’s until the waitress told me.”
I nod. That would have been Shelley. She’d been in the Sisterhood room a few times asking for news, and I know Marilee would have given her an update.
“I hope everything is okay,” Jake says.
“Marilee doesn’t really know anything yet,” I say. “But the doctor said the odds are good. She’ll know more in a couple of days.”
Jake nods. “I came to ask you to go out to dinner with me, but I can tell this isn’t a good time. I can wait and ask later. That is, if you want to go.”
I look at Jake. He is a handsome man. His black hair is thick, and his smile is infectious. He genuinely looks concerned about Marilee, so that counts in his favor. Any woman should be happy to date him.
“I’m not sure I can do dinner, but I’d love to have lunch with you—if that would work,” I say. “Maybe right here at the Pews?”
Jake’s smile turns to a full-blown grin. “That would be great. How about tomorrow?”
“Fine,” I say.
Jake doesn’t stay long after we make our plans, which is just as well because I had been fighting the urge to sigh the whole time I was talking to him. I couldn’t help but think back to that day when I went to kindergarten because my mother told me I had to carry on with my life even though I felt like staying home. A date shouldn’t seem like a duty.
When Jake is gone, I go back into the Sisterhood room. Everyone looks up when I enter, but no one asks me what Jake wanted. Both Rick and Quinn are looking a little grim, but they are silent. I know the questions are going to spill out from the sisters the minute we are alone. Quinn doesn’t look like he’ll leave Marilee anytime soon, though, and I figure the sisters can ask me their questions tomorrow evening at our regular meeting. It might even be nice to have something to talk about instead of Marilee’s test results, which probably won’t be back by then anyway.
Becca and I leave together and Carly goes back to work. It’s almost five o’ clock, and the after-work crowd is going to flood the Pews in a half hour, so Uncle Lou will be glad for her help.
I figure Quinn will spend some more time talking with Marilee, and Rick will go back to the fire station. I plan to start reading the other book on prayer that I have at home. I’d like to learn more about praying with other people. I’ll take a few minutes and describe the feelings I had earlier for the journal as well. I’m beginning to wonder how powerful the Sisterhood would have been if we’d known about God and prayer sooner.